


As the Ocean Calls Us Forward

by Big_Blue_Planet



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Canon Non-Binary Character, LGBTQ Characters, LGBTQ Female Character of Color, Multi, OCs - Freeform, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:28:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29404815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Big_Blue_Planet/pseuds/Big_Blue_Planet
Summary: Maria Ramos, also known as Mari to her friends, is having a bad day. That’s an understatement, this is by far the worst day of her life. She’s attending her abuela’s funeral today.Her abuela was the only person that truly loved Mari for herself. She could say with confidence that her abuela would always love her, whether it was for her gender, sexuality or anything.------------------------------------------------------------------This is my first time writing and posting anything. Please consider reading it!Cross-posted on Wattpad
Kudos: 1





	As the Ocean Calls Us Forward

**Author's Note:**

> Co-created by Lily40303 and Fanfics_reader_ on wattpad

Chapter One

Maria Ramos, also known as Mari to her friends, is having a bad day. That’s an understatement, this is by far the worst day of her life. She’s attending her abuela’s funeral today.

Her abuela was the only person that truly loved Mari for herself. She could say with confidence that her abuela would always love her, whether it was for her gender, sexuality or anything.

But now she’s gone, and tomorrow Mari and her parents would have to go to her house to see what things they would save and sell. Mari was opposed to selling anything from her house. The chair that her abuela would sit in telling the most amazing stories that would have you sitting at the edge of your seat, or the kitchen table where Mari would always watch her make the most amazing meals. To her, everything in the house was too precious to let go. In fact, Mari was appalled at the idea of her abuela selling the house but when she voiced her concerns her abuela just shook her head and said “Mi amor, change is needed in life to keep it interesting, without it life gets boring.” 

Long walks along the beach always helped Mari clear her head. And today she really needed to clear her head. So she walked to a beach that wasn’t too far 

Mari walked along the beach, watching the people surf and feeling the sand on her feet always helped her clear her head. As she walked she kept trying to find anything that would take her mind off of the funeral that she would have to attend in a couple of hours.

As she walked someone caught her eye, a surfer doing all kinds of neat tricks. ‘The perfect thing to get my mind off of this terrible day’ she thought as she took a seat in the sand, not caring about all the sand that would inevitably get everywhere. 

As she sat, eyes fixed on the surfer, she noticed them head towards her. As they walked closer and closer Mari could feel the blush start to creep up her face as she noticed how attractive they looked. Mari was lost in thought as they walked up and started talking to her, she knew that she should probably be paying attention to what they were saying but as they talked she couldn’t stop herself from staring at the face of the attractive stranger. She noticed the light freckles that covered their face and the way their short hair curled as it slowly dried in the sun.

The stranger waved their hand in Mari’s face, snapping her out of her trance. 

“Pr -Pronouns?” Mari stuttered out as the blush on her face deepened. The look of concern on the strangers face slowly turned into a smile as they said “The name’s Lou. My pronouns are they/them. Thanks for asking, usually people just assume I’m a girl and it drives me crazy.” The stranger, Lou, laughed. ‘So their name is Lou’ Mari thought going back into her trance, the look of concern returning on Lou’s face.

“Soooo…” Lou started, snapping Mari out of her trance for the second time. “What’s your name and pronouns?” 

“My name is Maria, but you can call me Mari. My pronouns are she/her” she said, sounding dejected.   
“So Mari, why do you look so sad?” Lou asked, the smile on their face making Mari’s heart skip a beat. Despite just meeting them, Mari told Lou all of her troubles, her fear of change, her abuela, everything. She just let it all out.

As she stopped talking, Mari was surprised to see that Lou had listened to the whole thing, she had thought that they would have tuned her out or something, but no, Lou was patiently waiting for her to finish before saying "I'm sorry for your loss. That must be hard to deal with." 

She looked at them confused before saying "Now it's my turn to ask you a question" 

"Alright..." They trailed off with a curious look on their face. 

"How come you're being so nice to me? We literally just met and over half of the people I know would have just told me 'to get over it'" 

"Well..." Lou started "I remember when my dad died, I needed someone to be there for me, but there wasn’t. I just don't want anyone else to go through that."

Mari watched as Lou hung their head down, She couldn't help but feel responsible for the terrible mood that hung in the air. As her and Lou walked, Mari let the guilt she felt make her feel more and more down.

They passed an ice cream stand on their walk ‘Huh- 2 for 1 ice cream sale’ Mari thought. Then it hit her. She would treat Lou to some ice cream. 

“Hey Lou?” Mari "asked. 

“Yeah?” they responded. 

“Want some ice cream? On me?”

Lou looked thoroughly surprised at the question. “Yes, I would like ice cream” they said “but I’m paying”

“What? No!” Mari exclaimed “You helped me. Now let me buy you ice cream” 

“Okay, okay” they started “But then you have to give me your phone number”

And just like that, the blush creeped back on to Mari’s face and the mood in the air suddenly turned from downtrodden to joking. However it seems that Lou mistook the embarrassment for anger, seeing as the next thing they said was “Did I make you angry? I’m so so so sorry, I didn’t mean to! You don’t have to give me your phone number if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s okay, I want to give you my number. I think we would be great friends” Mari said quickly, not caring about the stares the pair had received as a result of Lou’s outburst.

“Now” Mari said, “Let’s get some ice cream. On me.”

As they sat, Mari with her strawberry ice cream and Lou with her mint chocolate chip, they talked about life and many other things, like what they liked and their dream jobs. Mari found out that Lou worked at the bakery by her abuela’s house. Or rather what used to be her abuelas house. Now it was Mr. and Mrs. Andersons’ house. Mari and her abuela used to visit that bakery together all the time.

And just like that all of the memories came back to her, the good, the bad, the happy, and the sad. The memories that she was trying so hard to suppress were all coming back to her. The reality of the situation was quickly setting in. She had to attend her abuela’s funeral in an hour. The only person who she truly knew would never try to change her was gone. Forever.

As much as she didn’t want to, Mari had to leave. She had to be at the funeral in an hour and she was in no way ready. Mentally or physically. But the conversation that she had with Lou did help her prepare mentally. She couldn’t explain it but something about having someone who would listen to her definitely helps.

“Lou” Mari said, letting some of her sorrow seep into her voice. “I need to go.” 

As Mari got up to leave, Lou stood up abruptly and said at a fast pace.

“Wait! Let me give you my number before you go, we forgot to do it earlier and I don’t have my phone on me.” 

Mari handed her phone over and watched as Lou typed in their contact then handed the phone back over.

“Alright, well hopefully we can see each other another day.” Lou said as Mari was walking out. “And good luck at the funeral!”

Mari waved goodbye as she walked away from Lou heading back to her apartment to get changed.

‘Now... to get over the hardest part of the day.’

**Author's Note:**

> I got second-hand embarrassment writing some of these scenes


End file.
